Film Review: Living (2022)

 

Bill Nighy always gives a good performance and sometimes an exceptional one and this 2022 film directed by Oliver Hermanus is one of those occasions. He plays Mr Williams, a senior official at the Public Works department at London County Council in 1953. Long widowed with an adult son, he is deeply embedded in his job yet it is one he undertakes without passion. Indeed, the entire department seems hidebound by procedure shown in the example of a group of women trying to get permission and funding for a children’s playground. In a sequence early on we see their application being passed from Mr Williams’s department through several others before ending back on his desk to be “kept here.” In other words, nothing will come of it. The women are persistent enough to keep returning but is seems to make little difference. I think we can all empathise with that sort of bureaucracy even today!

 

One day Mr Williams receives a terminal medical diagnosis meaning he has about six to eight months to live. The shock of this jolts him from his ordered routine leading to a prolonged absence from the office, an attempt to live a little at fairgrounds, pubs, and bars before returning to work to push through the playground project with the quiet determination required. All the while his family and work colleagues remain unaware of his condition. The work of the office goes on while he opens up firstly to a stranger he meets in a café who takes him to the town’s high life and later to Margaret Harris, who briefly worked at the office but left for a livelier employment in a tea room.

The film is an adaptation of Ikiru, a Japanese drama from 1952 with a similar story which was co-directed by the legendary Akira Kurusawa. This version is anchored by Bill Nighy’s remarkable ability to remain both still yet animated at once. There aren’t many actors who can say or do so little yet convey so much and this film leans into those qualities. The actor has had roles like this before yet once again he finds something new- a scene where he sings an old Irish ballad in a bar is riveting, the moment he tells Margaret of his diagnosis so moving yet done with restraint thanks to Williams’ politeness at all times. Few actors can voice regret or longing quite as eloquently as Nighy so he is perfect for the role. There’s an excellent performance too from Aimee Lou Wood as Margaret who represents the optimism that Williams has lost. She couldn’t be more different – funny, warm, and caring- and is the inspiration for Williams to do something with the time he has left.

You realise there must have been millions of people who lived- and perhaps still live- like this where the thrill of youth is replaced by the monotony of adulthood. There are different reasons and there is an implication – confirmed more in promotional interviews than is obvious in the film- that Williams had turned to work after his wife died but this topic is not explored. Also, he does tell Margaret he had always wanted to become one of those men with hats he used to see as a child. Compared with a lot of other modern films where sooner or later characters will tell all in some grand scene the buttoned-up Williams is not really going to spill. In fact, we only learn after his death that he had never told his son about his condition.

The look of the film seems so period accurate established when they run the opening titles over footage of London from the Fifties using the typeface you often see in movies from that time. Oliver Hemanus steers matters without any concessions to modernity so emotions remain bottled up.  Its funny that sometimes you really want Williams to speak out, to tell people, to shout at people but its not that kind of film. The incidental music is also kept at a respectful distance to merely support rather than lead the viewer and the dialogue seems so of the time. 

The structure is a little unexpected with the latter part of the playground project and Williams’ part in it shown in flashback after he'd gone essentially making the last third an extended coda.  I wasn’t sure it would work and truthfully it is drawn out by having what seem like successive final scenes but lands delightfully on a sequence that will surely move even the stoniest of hearts. That one of these scenes  that however inspired his work colleagues were in their stated determination to change things it did not happen and everything slipped back to normal means there isn't quite the uplift you might expect. 

I was wondering whether this would be a depressing film but its not at all yet neither is it some inspirational fiction. Instead its a much more small scale tale of a man who, knowing he is near the end, breaks out to do something good yet does so in his own modest way. Apart from the reward of seeing an actor at the height of his powers there’s something in the story that will resonate with most people. Living unfurls without being over sentimental or unbelievable and is well worth a look.